"Nope nope nope nope" She repeated like a broken record as the bell rung and the class was dismissed, no one listening to the teacher as she shouted instructions at them.
Peter watched his friend as they walked down the corridor, trying to decipher her muttering under her breath. She seemed even more out of it than earlier, but now there wasn't just the feeling of sadness, she looked panicked too.
"Hey Ven? Are you okay?" He asked.
When there wasn't an answer he laid his hand on her shoulder, but she immediately leapt back, staring at him with wide eyes.
The two heroes started back at each other briefly, before Seven shook her head.
"I'm gonna walk home Pete, will you tell Happy for me?" She said and Peter looked at her worriedly.
"Are you sure? It'll take you an hour to get home."
"Yeah" She nodded, "I need to clear my head"
"You want company?" He gave her a small questioning smile, but she shook her head lightly.
"Maybe another time Pete"
"Oh, okay. I'll let him know" He agreed and then watched as Seven walked away, her head down and her headphones in, presumably on full volume.
As Seven walked further and further away from the school it became quieter and she could no longer hear the chatter of other students over Adele as she sang Chasing Pavements in her headphones.
Seven still couldn't wrap her head around what she had just seen. Sure it was totally plausible as from what she had heard from the stories she had been told, her mother and Bucky were in confinement at the same time, just with different organisations, which they now knew were working together for who knows how long.
She didn't want Bucky to be her father. She liked Bucky just fine, but she didn't know how to talk to him, or what he liked, or if they had anything in common other than not having any control over their lives for a big portion of time.
The exact same feeling that she felt when she found out Natasha was her mother was back. The feeling of guilt and helplessness, this time it was a little different as she wasn't happily surprised, she was just surprised.
When she found out Natasha was her mother it was completely different. She had had nothing, no parents, no family, no friends. And then suddenly there was someone amazing in her life, who wanted to be her mom as much as she wanted a mom.
She was finally happy now, she had her parent, she had Peter, and a family that she was finally getting to know individually. Bucky wasn't looking for a long lost child that he never wanted, or even knew existed. From everything she had observed about him, this would majorly freak him out and be the last thing he wanted. She wasn't exactly looking for another parent.
She knew that he had no clue who she was because of him not being himself when he was the winter soldier, and Natasha was never told who the father was, only that he was strong. Seven knew that if she never told him then no one would ever know anything different, and for now, that was what she was planning to do.
Seven stopped for a second to grab her water bottle out of her bag, her eyes catching a quick glimpse at the letter before she sighed and zipped the bag straight back up again, refusing to look at it. Before swinging the backpack back onto her shoulder she reached into her small pocket and pulled out all four IDs, holding them in her hand.
As she continued walking through the streets she looked at each ID. The Stark tower ID which read 'Seven Romanoff', both her Triskelion IDs, one of her smiling into the camera with her name underneath, and the other with the picture of her in her suit, 'Shadow' beneath it. Her final ID was her school ID, reminding her that she was also a student, someone who went to school like a normal person.
Seven tried to figure out a way that these four people could co-exist together, in one body. She wanted it to work but where was the space? When you pour too much water into a glass it will have to overflow when it gets too much, it can't keep going for infinity.
The redhead sighed, she cursed herself for getting too comfortable, too happy and complacent.
Seven stopped at the sound of something in the alley she was walking beside. She pulled her headphones from her ears and immediately she heard it again, a lot louder this time. She contemplated walking away, choosing not to make it her problem, but that just wasn't in her nature.
She peered into the alleyway and quite far down was a van. The more she looked, the more familiar it was becoming to her. Suddenly she remembered why it looked so familiar to her, it was the same van that hit Peter.
She knew she didn't have her suit but that wouldn't stop her from investigating. Peter would probably be super mad at her if he found out, but he did say he didn't want to investigate the red syringes anymore and Seven was curious.
She walked very slowly against the wall, luckily the windscreen was facing the other way so if there were people sat inside they wouldn't be able to see her approaching.
When she got as close as the back of the van she crept along the side before hovering just before the door so she wouldn't be visible in the windows, and she pressed her ear to the van, listening.
"How many do we have now?" The same voice spoke from the night Peter was hit with the van and Seven furrowed her eyebrows, trying to figure out what they were talking about.
"Fifty doses, give or take" She guessed they were talking about the red syringes. It had started to rain so Seven pulled her hood up over her head.
"When does the boss want us to start administrating them?"
"He said to give him a few weeks to get everything sorted and then it's go time," The second person said and Seven gasped, she didn't know what those syringes would do but she guessed it wouldn't be good.
"And what about-" As the small man spoke he looked up and glanced at his wing mirror, catching the small girl hovering.
Seven made eye contact and could have died right there when she realised she had been caught. Without thinking she took off, trying not to slip over and dodge the puddles that the rain had created.
"Hey! Stop there!" The men called out to her but it only made her run faster.
The smaller man began running after her until the other stopped him, yelling for him to come back.
"Look at this" He points to the floor,
"Well, would you look at that" He grinned, patting his friend on the back.
When Seven finally stopped running she was drenched and on top of another rooftop, that seemed to be her hang out at this point.
The rain was hammering down and she shivered, she knew every single area of her clothing would be completely drenched. She sat down on the edge of the rooftop and looked at her phone before looking back at the city, knowing it would take another half an hour in the rain to get home.
She sighed before rubbing the screen with her jumper sleeve. It didn't do much as her sleeve was wet and it was still raining, hitting the screen all over again.
She opened the phone and looked for contacts. There were still only five people in her contact list and she wasn't about to call Tony to come to pick her up. Natasha would be mad at her for trying to walk home in an unfamiliar city alone, Steve would just tell Natasha and Peter couldn't drive.
So that only left one contact.
She sighed and hovered over the button before just pressing it, holding it to her ear so it wouldn't get any wetter.
The phone rung for a few seconds before going to voicemail, she groaned realising she would have to walk.
As she went to stand up she felt the phone vibrating in her hand and she rushed to answer it.
"Seven?" Bucky's voice was low and unsure, she could tell he had just been sleeping.
"Sorry for calling," She said, she was nervous now that she knew what she knew.
"It's fine, you just never call me," He said, Seven was jealous, he sounded dry.
"I know" She agreed, "I was just wondering if you would come and get me? I decided to walk home and got drenched and am only halfway"
"Of course, text me where you are, I'll be there in ten minutes" Seven could already hear him moving around on the other side of the line before he hung up, she was shocked that he didn't ask any follow-up questions and just agreed.
She sat on the edge of the roof before realising she still had her IDs in her hand so she swung her bag back around so she could put them back. When she unzipped the pocket and started putting them back she realised that she was missing one.
Shit.
Her school ID wasn't with the others and she felt immediate panic, she was hoping she had dropped it when scaling the building. If not then she was trouble.
Seven decided not to worry about it for now, there was nothing she could do about it and there were also bigger things she needed to worry about.
As she waited anxiously for Bucky to come and get her she started pondering what those red syringes could be, she knew now that there was definitely something happening that she didn't know about.
From what she had heard she had a few weeks until they started 'administrating' the liquid, and who knows what it would do? Who knows who they were targeting.
Seven was so drenched that it no longer bothered her as the freezing cold water droplets ran down her neck into her hoodie. She also made no attempt of pulling the hood up as that was drenched too.
The familiar black car pulled in front of the building and she lowered herself from the roof, allowing herself to drop from the final windowsill, catching a glimpse of herself in the window and desperately trying not to burst out laughing due to the inconvenience of the whole situation. She looked like a drowned rat, her red hair clinging to her pale skin, eyes clouded with droplets of rain that hung on her eyelashes.
She clutched her backpack to her stomach, reminding herself to thank Natasha for making sure it was waterproof.
Bucky opened the car door, remaining inside but looking at the girl who was standing next to the now opened door. He brought his hand up to cover his mouth when he caught sight of her, clothes hanging off her small frame, ten shades darker than they were meant to be due to the excessive rain.
"Haha, very funny" She deadpanned,
"I'm not laughing," Bucky said, face returning to his normal, neutral look. "Get in"
Seven plodded around to the other side and pulled the door open, she could hear her shoes squelching with every step she took. "Did you bring a towel?" She asked hesitantly, suddenly remembering what it was that she had learned earlier that day.
"No?" He said, "Wait!" He reached into the back of the car and pulled out a small face flannel.
"You're kidding right?" Seven looked at him in disbelief as he held the flannel out to her. She sighed and took the flannel from his hand and slid into the car. "You know the seat will get covered?"
Bucky shrugged, "It's Stark's car"
"Oh, okay" She replied, figuring that he had the means to get it professionally cleaned, or he could just buy a brand new one entirely.
The two sat in awkward silence as they began the drive home. Bucky didn't know how to talk to her, plus he had nothing to say so he figured it would be best to just stay completely silent. Seven was afraid that she had too much to say and no idea how to say it, or even if she should, so she too decided to stay quiet.
As soon as they pulled into the garage Seven grabbed her bag and slid back out of the car, welcoming back the squelching noise of the water in her trainers.
"Uh, thanks for getting me," She said as the elevator rose.
"No problem" He assured her just before the doors opened and several pairs of eyes turned to face them.
Natasha was up in an instant, storming towards them angrily. All seven could do was watch as she approached and Bucky walked away, rightfully not wanting to be on the end of Nat's rage.
"James Buchanan Barnes, I'm not done with you!" She yelled after him as he wandered down the corridor.
"I don't doubt that" Seven heard him say quietly and she envied him for being able to leave.
"Where the hell have you been?" She said, her voice dangerously low.
"I walked home. It rained" Seven replied monotonously.
Natasha glanced at the teenager's whole attire, she was in fact, very wet. The only part of her that was dry was her face, the only part the tiny flannel would've covered.
Natasha took a step away from her when she realised that her daughter was actually forming a puddle of rainwater underneath her feet.
"Go shower" She sighed and Seven breathed in relief before scurrying off to the shower as fast as humanly possible, ignoring the baffled stares of the other avengers.
When Seven got out of the shower she hadnt expected her mother to be sat waiting on her bed. Natasha held out a plastic bag and Seven dumped her wet clothes into it before Natasha quickly tied it at the top and placed it onto the floor as her daughter grabbed new clothes and retreated back into the bathroom to get changed.
"Seven" Natasha said firmly when her daughter re-emerged.
"Yeah?" She answered cautiously, eyeing her mother.
"Sit down"
Seven did as her mother said, climbing onto her bed and crossing her legs as she waited for Natasha to speak.
"Why did you walk home?" Natasha asked,
"I just felt like it today" Seven shrugged and Natasha tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, idicating the fact that she didn't believe her.
"I know what today is Seven" Natasha continued, "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it" She looked at her daughter sympathetically.
"Thank you" Seven looked down at the floor.
"However, that doesn't mean you can just disappear without warning, Ivan's out there still. You know that."
"I know, I just needed to clear my head, all I could think about all day was the fact that it would've been today"
"I get that" Natasha half-smiled.
"What was it like for you?" Seven asked after a moment of repectful silence.
"It was the second-worst day of my life" Natasha began quietly, "the only difference for me was that It was just past my eighteenth birthday when it happened, I couldn't imagine it being on my fifteenth birthday"
"I couldn't imagine it happening at all" Seven remarked dejectedly and Natasha nodded.
"I know"
"Was it painful?" Seven asked, looking up at her mother.
"A little, but not really" Natasha's eyes were sad, they both knew what she'd lost. "It was more of an ache, during and after the procedure. After I was mostly just sad." She said, "I hadn't even thought about children before I had you, but after you were gone it was what I wanted most and I knew then that I would never get the chance again."
"It's unfair" Seven said, her voice quiet.
"I know" Natasha wiped a single stray tear from her cheek. "I was so young, and you would've been even younger"
"Yeah" Seven didn't have anything other to say but that. What her mother went through was both traumatic and unfair and watching her sad face made her heart plummet. "But you're okay now."
"Yeah" Natasha reached for her daughter's hand, holding it between her own. "We're okay now. I have what I wanted most, and you're safe."
"I'm safe" Seven repeated, her eyes drifting from the matching green ones to the world outside her window, now lit dimly by streetlights. "Safe."
She felt the safest she had ever felt here in the tower, here with her mom.
She was safe, but she still couldn't shake the uneasy, queasy feeling gnawing at her stomach.
"Fifty doses, give or take"
"A few weeks..."